Daredevils fancy winning start against RCB

With South African star AB de Villiers still a doubtful starter for Saturday’s encounter, and RCB going down to Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in their opening tie, morale will definitely be on the lower side for last season’s runner-up team. 

Besides de Villiers, the hosts will be without the services of their regular skipper Virat Kohli and opening batsman Lokesh Rahul, which further weakens their batting. RCB will be hoping Chris Gayle will take on the onus of laying a solid foundation at the top alongside the likes of stand-in skipper Shane Watson, Kedar Jadhav, Mandeep Singh, Travis Head and Sachin Baby. 

Despite a good bowling attack with English quick Tymal Mills leading the unit, RCB failed to stop the onslaught from the likes of Yuvraj Singh, Moises Henriques and Shikhar Dhawan in the previous match. 

The Daredevils, on the other hand, have their own injury concerns with Sri Lankan all-rounder Angelo Mathews, South African stumper Quinton de Kock and batsman Shreyas Iyer, already out of the contest. 

After finishing sixth in the last edition, DD have still decided to go with a young batting unit comprising the likes of Sam Billings, Karun Nair, Rishabh Pant and Sanju Samson. The Zaheer Khan-led side, however, have bolstered their pace attack with the addition of Kasigo Rabada and Pat  Cummins.